KiwiBuild CEO resigns after weeks of absence

KiwiBuild chief, Stephen Barclay, has left the organisation after just five months in the job. According to reports, he was on leave since November 2018, while the government denied rumours about his resignation in December last year. He was hired in May to lead the government’s ambitious scheme to build 100,000 homes in a decade.

The resignation has caused strong criticism from the opposition party leaders.

The resignation does not bode well for KiwiBuild, which has already shown itself to be a much more difficult beast than Phil Twyford, or the government seem to anticipate, says National Party housing spokesperson Judith Collins said in a statement.

The Government’s flagship KiwiBuild programme is “in crisis” with head Stephen Barclay resigning, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Phil Twyford can’t even manage his own department – how can we expect him to plan and build 100,000 new houses?

“This is the danger of putting the Government in charge of a massive house building programme.

“Twyford must urgently move to cut planning red tape so that the private sector can take over and build the houses New Zealanders need.

“We have a housing crisis because regulation has made land artificially scarce and houses expensive.

“The latest manifestations are in Auckland and Wellington where students are paying to share beds and sleep in living rooms.

“KiwiBuild will not add to the housing supply and will not solve the housing crisis.

“The Government is simply buying existing private sector homes, placing a KiwiBuild logo on them, and adding a set of bureaucratic rules around who can buy them.

“Phil Twyford should be getting to the source of the housing crisis by tackling red tape, something he campaigned on in opposition.

“The Government was elected to solve the housing crisis. Nine months in, it is desperately failing.”

The government’s ambitious scheme of building homes came under fire when it was reported that some of the initial homes were not sold to “low-income” families, but to professionals like doctors and marketing managers.